Joel Hawksley | The Grand Rapids PressClark Goodrich, of Kentwood, rides his wheelchair on 29th Street to work on Friday. Goodrich has to ride in the street because there are no sidewalks on a portion of the road.

KENTWOOD -- Clark Goodrich was able to board and exit a public bus en route to a picnic last week marking the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition, the sidewalk had a curb cut that enabled him to cross the street in his wheelchair and get to the park where the party was held.

Those are two prime examples of how the landmark legislation signed into law July 26, 1990, by then-President George H.W. Bush has improved Goodrich's life. But it was an encounter after the picnic that the Kentwood man identified as a better measure of how much society's perspective on disability has changed in the past 20 years.

As he was leaving the park, a Grand Rapids government car driven by an assistant city engineer pulled up and asked if Goodrich knew about any sidewalk that needed curb cuts.

"I thought, 'Wow, that's the spirit of the ADA right there,'" Goodrich said. "That's a great illustration of the fact that they're thinking about it, and they're acting on it.

"Even the mind set to be thinking about people with disabilities is a direct result of the ADA and the cases that have been in the news."

For Goodrich, 38, who never has been able to walk due to a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, today's anniversary of the civil rights law that sought to end discrimination based on disability is both cause for celebration and "a reminder that we're not done and there's still so, so much to do."

On one hand, changes to the physical landscape have made it possible for him to go most anywhere he wants from his Kentwood home, enhancing his prospects for employment, health care and recreation.

Goodrich said mobility used to be the No. 1 problem for people with disabilities. Now, thanks to the ADA, the ability to ride a bus to the grocery store or a doctor's appointment "probably is the single biggest thing that's helped the whole independent living movement," he said.

Still, there is a stretch of 29th Street SE, for example, one he frequents on his way to work, where sidewalk is lacking, and he drives his wheelchair in the road. And though perceptions of disability have changed over the years, and society has become more accommodating, he said there remains work to be done.

"There are still a lot of stores and restaurants that I'm unable to get into, with doors that you have to pull open," Goodrich said. "The automatic door button, that's not a requirement of the ADA. It's just something that makes it easier for people with disabilities to access your wares.

"When I want to go to the mall and a movie, I go to Rivertown (Crossings Mall in Grandville), because it's convenient and I can get in."

A tribute to the late Justin Dart Jr., the "Father of the ADA" who in the 1980s collected thousands of testimonials about discrimination faced by disabled people, "It's Our Story" seeks both to show progress that has been made and identify future challenges. The project was to debut this afternoon on the Internet at itsourstory.org.

"We got to say what we wanted to say," said Duane DeRochey, 57, a Grand Rapids man with cerebral palsy who also was interviewed for the project. "I'd like people to treat every person with a disability normally, rather than treating them like they're retarded.

"It's important for people to understand that there's folks with disabilities all around. We want people to know about us. Then they can see that we have minds, even though we have disabilities. We can think and we run our own lives."

At a press conference last year announcing the launch of "It's Our Story,"one of the project's organizers called the ADA the "beginning of my American dream."

"I was not aware then the impact this law would have on my life, on my dignity and on my potential," Victor Paneda said. "The Americans with Disabilities Act is a lifeline of equal opportunity, tolerance and understanding.

"It's also fundamentally American, as it embraces our national values of independence, autonomy and freedom. Our history is a fundamental part of American history."

Also today, anniversary events including live music, entertainment and adaptive sports equipment demonstrations are scheduled 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the Capitol lawn in Lansing. Earlier this month, in an event featuring a giant puppet created in Dart's likeness, the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council celebrated 20 years of the ADA with a panel discussion on the impact of the law.

"Before 1990, it was not uncommon that, as a society, we would hide disability as an undesirable characteristic," said Michele Suchovsky, executive director of VSA Arts of Michigan-Grand Rapids, an educational nonprofit that links artists and people with disabilities.

"Some of the assumptions have changed. The law made that first step in changing how legally we had to work in society, and what we've really seen over that time is that, socially, we've come along with that."

Still, while bus lifts and building ramps now are taken for granted after 20 years of the ADA, the spirit of the law is not fully ingrained in society, Suchovsky said.

"If you're not accessible, we have a right to demand accessibility (under the ADA)," she said. "What I look to in the future is that we don't have to demand it anymore."

Goodrich notes that, "For the most part, our city centers and county courts are fairly accessible here" in Kent County. But things are different in rural areas such as his northern Michigan hometown of Marion, where "there's nobody really pushing" for compliance, in part because advocates can't get to the people they need to lobby.

Because there is little public transportation in Marion and so many dirt roads without sidewalk, Goodrich said it would be almost impossible for him to move back home. If he did, his job opportunities would be few due to building inaccessibility.

Contrast that to his life in Kentwood, where a full charge on his wheelchair can get him almost anywhere he wants.

"We really have made a lot of ground in the last 20 years, but there is really so much more to do," Goodrich said. "A lot of it, honestly, is stuff that's not going to be settled with legislation. It's perception and willingness of people to open up and recognize that anybody could end up with a disability.